Grace enough

Well howdy Y'all!!!!    I am channeling my inner Minnie Pearl today.   Such a warm and gracious southern lady.    Always smiling and welcoming of those around her.   Ready to put one at ease with her lovely charm and quick wit and wonderful personality.    Ready to smile and laugh and say, "How-dy", with the "how" part drawn out just a bit and the "dy" part said just a bit quicker with just a little bit of a higher tone.    I wish I could imitate her, I would do a video just saying her famous "how-dy".   I guarantee you would love it!!!!    She was a lady of grace, she knew all about the grace of God too.    I said last post that we would talk about Grace this time, so here goes.

Do you think your sin is greater than God's grace?  If that were true, God would not be great enough to meet your/my every need!!!  If that were true, then we would be saying that "some" sin is just too big for God to handle! If that were true, then Christ would NOT be enough!

Quick definition of Grace and Mercy:
Grace-God giving us what we don't deserve; salvation-eternal life.
Mercy-God "not" giving us what we do deserve; penalty for sin-eternal death.

Romans 5:20,21 But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I'm reminded of one of my all time favorite hymns at church.  I went on a search for the meaning behind this song.   When we can understand a bit of the history behind a great old hymn of faith, then we can understand more about what it should mean to us.  A couple of  sentences summed up the overall meaning behind this hymn.    1."In total this great song encourages us to remember that the main issue with the world is not economic, or political, or social – it is spiritual!"    2."You cannot out-sin God's GRACE!!!!!"     Now, these here are "shoutin' words!"    These are words that can stir the soul to the point of making decisions that have eternal rewards.


Read these words slowly, taking them in and pondering them very carefully.

        "Grace Greater than Our Sin"  

    Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
    Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
    Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
    There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.
       
        Grace, grace, God’s grace,
        Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
        Grace, grace, God’s grace,
        Grace that is greater than all our sin!

    Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
    Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
    Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
    Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

    Dark is the stain that we cannot hide;
    What can we do to wash it away?
    Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,
    Brighter than snow you may be today.

    Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
    Freely bestowed on all who believe!
    You that are longing to see His face,
    Will you this moment His grace receive?

Marvelous Amazing Grace, isn't it!!!!!!!     God loved us while we were still sinners!!!!    This, my friend, is Grace!!!!!   Who does that????  Who looks past what the eyes can see, and looks to the depth of one's soul and sees the lost, hurting, lonely, scarred, shame filled person and says "I love you so much that I made a way for you to be in right relationship with Me"????     God does that, Jesus Christ does that!!!!!   Woohoo!!!!    Praises!!!!  Amazing Grace, Infinite, Matchless Grace!!!!!

I'm here to tell you that NO SIN, absolutely NO SIN is too big for God!   The Creator of the universe and all that lies within the scope of the universe can forgive even the most egregious sin.  The death of Christ on the cross covered the penalty for every sin that has ever been or will ever be!   Now.....that doesn't mean that every sin has been forgiven!    Sin has to be acknowledged by the sinner and there has to be some remorse in the sinners heart and soul.    We have to come to a point that we are ready to start fresh and be renewed.    We have to have a renewal of the heart and mind and ask Jesus Christ to free us from the bondage of sin.   If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, then His blood is sufficient!!!!   Christ is ENOUGH to cover any sin!   God is enough!!!!!    GRACE is enough!!!!    At some point, before the end of the day (the end our lives), we just have to say, "Jesus is enough!", and mean it.  God's Grace is enough!!!! 

Do you believe that God's Grace is enough?   Do you honestly and truly believe that God's Grace IS enough?   That is a question that we all MUST answer.  I can't answer it for you any more than you can answer it for me.  We must know that our lives will reflect what we really do believe.  I pray that y'alls lives and mine will reflect that God's Grace through Jesus Christ our Risen Savior is enough!!!! 

If you haven't yet experienced the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, it's not to late.    You have to recognize and confess that you are a sinner in need of cleansing.   In reality, we ALL are sinners in need of Jesus!!!!    You have to believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is the only One that can cleanse you.    You have to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and ask Him to help you live daily through the Holy Spirit to become what He has destined you to be.   Living for Christ is not easy.    Jesus told His followers in Luke, that in order to follow Him, you must take up your cross daily.    Most of us have no idea as to what taking up your cross daily means.    It is MUCH more than a bad day at work; it is MUCH more than unruly children; it is MUCH more than being stuck in traffic; it is even MUCH more than an unwanted diagnosis from the doctor.    What Jesus is talking about is this:    Are you willing to live in such a way that your life brings persecution on you for being a Christian?    Are you willing to die for your relationship with Jesus Christ?    Are you willing to have everyone in your life turn away from you because you accepted Christ as Lord and Savior of your life?    Those are a few examples of taking up your cross daily and following Christ.    We live in a time when people are being persecuted for being Christian.    Christianity is under attack and will always be under attack because it is the ONLY way to see God.   I didn't say that, Jesus did.   But we see persecution every time we watch the local, national, and world wide news?   Why is that?    All the other world religions have dead and powerless founders/leaders.    People fear the cross and what the cross represents, because our Lord and Savior, JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE AND WELL!!!    Look again y'all, the the tomb is EMPTY!!!!     Christ IS alive!!!!!     People fear what they don't know.    We are told as Christians, that we must tolerate sin.   We have been told that for so long that we don't even acknowledge sin anymore.    We give sin creative new names that seem to take away all personal responsibility.   In the end, we will still BE responsible for our sin, regardless of what we have tried to cleverly rename it.    Grace can cover that!!!

The final question is this:  Is God's grace, thru the cross of Christ,  enough for you?   Is God's grace, thru the cross of Christ, enough for me?    Our lives WILL reflect our chosen answer.    Choose GRACE!!!

So, last week I watched a This and That Thursday video put out by +Heather Kraafter  of the +Kraaft Shaak and Kraafters Kommunity found over on Google+.    She was showing how to color with the Twinkling H2o's, I think that's what they were called.   I really enjoyed that 10 to 20 minutes of watching that video.   I loved it so much that I wanted to do my own version with the supplies that I have.   I don't have the twinks, but I do have a sparkly set of watercolors, so that's what I used.   I really enjoyed this.   I would suggest that you go over and find that video and watch it.   Her painting is gorgeous!!!!!   Looks like a postcard, not kidding!!!   +Heather Kraafter painted her pic on a 6x6 inch piece of 140 pound water color paper.  So, one thing leads to another, right?    I done my own "thang", which we all should do.    And this is what I came up with.  

I call this, "The Big Winter Squash, Barley Clown"!     Hahahaha......don't want to be confused with the cartoon of a rhyming nature.    Anyway, as you can see for yourself, it not great at all, but I was happy as a "squirrel with a nut" when I got through with it.

Just a closeup of the "winter squash", pumpkin.

This pic really tickles me.  I don't know if you can see it or not, but I see a smiling face in this one.  Half way up the pic, on the left is what looks like an eye and then to the far left, just almost out of the image is what looks like a mouth coming up the big branch and then the branches look like antlers.   I know, leave it to me, huh.

Then this is the bottom of the tree and grass.  I used the shimmery watercolors I had and then toned that down just a bit with a regular set of kiddie Crayola water colors.   Whatever works, right?

This is the big winter squash. hahaha   Overall, I was satisfied with this little painting.    Just freehand sketching and coloring.    Don't get much "funner" than that, y'all.

Ok, so after cutting the 6x6 piece of water color paper, I was left with the rest of the sheet of a 9x12 sheet.    As a crafter, I refuse to be wasteful, so..........what was I to do with the rest of the sheet.    I got out one of my cutters and started cutting 3x3 pieces.    With it cut into smaller "canvases", what was I gonna do with them?     Hummmmm.........................this is what I done.

 I took each little piece of water color paper and use my paper masking tape and taped it evenly on all sides, to my mini clipboard.    That gave me the frame. I drew my little acorn and  I then used my kooi noor markers and color pencils to color it.   I used my clear wink of stella to put shimmer on the little swirly doodles.

Then I done a mini version of the big Barley Clown pumpkin.    Considering these are cut at 3x3 and then masked off with the tape, the little images are actually about 2 inches.

This is a feather I drew and colored and it was really dark in places and I wasn't happy with it, so I used one of my white pens and put little white dots on.    Now, this is where "ignorance is bliss" comes in.   I used my wink of stella on the feather and it caused the white spots to bleed just enough that it toned down the really dark places on it.   BINGO!!!!!    It was exactly what my feather needed.    

After drawing out a few, I thought of some of the smaller stamps that I have.   Why not use one and see how that turns out.    Well, I think that is a great way to go if you're like me and can't draw too well.

So, next I got to thinking about some of the smallish dies that I have.    I took a cracker box and cut it down to about 5x5 piece of card board and centered this small oak leak on it and cut out.   I taped the water color paper down and placed the cut out leaf over it and traced the image and then colored it and used my wink of stella and I think that is just the bees knees.    It worked awesome.   

I also cut out some acorns.   I place the leaf and acorns down and traced around them and done the usual coloring them.    By cutting images out of the center of a piece of chipboard/cardboard, I have 2 ways of using the image.    I can lay the big piece down and use it like a stencil and trace the inside of it.    Or I can take the cut out and lay it down and trace around the image.

Then I went back to drawing, and drew this ornament.    I was using my kooi noor pencils and markers on this one as usual, again something happened I wasn't quit expecting.    When I used the wink of stella on the upper left hand of the ornament and coloring over the little navy blue starburst, the wink of stella activated the marker and it bled just a bit, but the way I was using it and brushing downward, that blue just lightly colored the yellow making it look like a natural shadow.    Again, "ignorance is bliss".    Because I have no idea how one product will work or not work with another, it's just hit or miss for me and a learning process every time I play. 

On this and the next two or three, they are just Christmas ornaments that I stamped and colored them the same way that I colored the others and used wink of stella to finish them off.

These have been really fun to make and I don't have but about 20 minutes each, at best in them.    I am gonna make the little easel backs to put on them, maybe put some on card fronts, I don't know what all I'll do with them.    But there is always something to be done with scraps.

Sure hope y'all enjoyed this and that maybe you can find inspiration to do something with some of your scraps.   It's funny how you can see what someone else has done and then run with your own idea.    I am sure I will be doing more of these.  

I hope and pray that y'all seen something here today that you like.    If you did, share it with someone.    We all need to know about Grace and we all need to tap into our inner artist, which actually comes from the same God that supplies Grace.

Sweetpea loves you Ladybug!!!    See you soon.

So I will leave you with one last thought this evening, God loves y'all and so do I!!!  Hugs, Patty